Archive for March, 2012

IDEO’s Fred Dust talks about his work at the forefront of design innovation, including consulting with the president of Greece, advising the TSA and collaborating with a family doctor to redesign his health care delivery system.

With The Nation’s Eyal Press
What impels ordinary people to defy authority and convention, sacrificing safety for the fierceness their convictions? Through dramatic stories and groundbreaking research by psychologists and neuroscientists, journalist Eyal Press examines the choices and dilemmas we face when our principles collide with the loyalties we harbor and the duties we are expected to fulfill.

Named by The New Yorker as one of the “20 best writers under 40,” as well as receiving international acclaim and numerous awards, Nicole Krauss emerged as one of the most intriguing novelists of the last decade with the international bestseller, The History of Love. Her latest novel, Great House, charts the journey of one tremendous desk as it travels through decades, exposing the memories of its many owners, and their struggles to create meaning in the face of inevitable loss.

Resolved “to find a voice for the voiceless” while working in the auto plants during the 1950s, Philip Levine’s work is most famous for its urban perspective, and depictions of the grim reality of blue collar work and workers. In his new role as U.S. Poet Laureate, Levine says he has one main goal: “I want to bring poetry to people who have no idea how relevant poetry is to their lives.”

Top chef, restaurateur and author Gabrielle Hamilton provokes us to consider how we approach our meals and our families—the ones we’re born into, the ones we make with our partners and children, and the ones that are born of work and sweat.